Sweet Sioux Tomahawk
Encyclopedia
| Sweet Sioux Tomahawk | |
| Teams | Northwestern Wildcats Northwestern Wildcats football The Northwestern Wildcats football team, representing Northwestern University, is a NCAA Division I team and member of the Big Ten Conference, with evidence of organization in 1876... Illinois Fighting Illini Illinois Fighting Illini football The Illinois Fighting Illini are a major college football program, representing the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. They compete in NCAA Division I-A and the Big Ten Conference.-Current staff:-All-time win/loss/tie record:*563-513-51... |
| Originated | 1945 |
| Ended | 2008 |
| Trophy Series | Illinois leads, 33-29-2 |
| Final Holder | Northwestern |
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| Northwestern (29) 1945 1947 1948 1949 1950 1952 1954 1956 1960 1961 1962 1966 1969 1970 1973 1977 1986 1987 1991 1992 1995 1996 1997 2000 2003 2004 2005 2006 2008 |
Illinois (33) 1946 1951 1953 1957 1958 1959 1963 1964 1965 1967 1968 1971 1972 1974 1975 1976 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1988 1989 1990 1993 1994 1998 1999 2001 2002 2007 |
| Ties (2) 1955 1978 |
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The Sweet Sioux Tomahawk was presented to the winner of the annual college football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
game between Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
rivals Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, located in the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
suburb of Evanston
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
, and the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, located on the border between the central Illinois cities of Champaign
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
and Urbana
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....
. The original trophy was a carved wooden "cigar store" Indian, but was stolen and replaced by a replica of a tomahawk.
Northwestern won the Tomahawk first in 1945, beating Illinois 13-7 in Evanston. At the end of the 2008 football season
2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season, or the college football season, began on August 28, 2008, progressing through the regular season and bowl season, and concluded with the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game in Miami Gardens, Florida on January 8, 2009, where the #2...
, when the teams last played for the trophy, Illinois held a 52-45-5 edge in the series overall, and a 33-29-2 lead during the era of the Tomahawk. Northwestern narrowed the series record in the trophy's final years, winning five of the last six meetings.
The Saturday, November 22, 2008 Illinois-Northwestern football game in Evanston was the final time the two teams played for the Tomahawk, which Northwestern won 27-10. The NCAA mandated that all Native American imagery deemed hostile and abusive must be removed from college athletics, including the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk. Before the game, the schools agreed that Northwestern would be the trophy's permanent resting place (if Illinois had won the game, it would have surrendered the trophy to Northwestern after the on-field celebration). The teams began competing for a new prize, the Land of Lincoln Trophy
Land of Lincoln Trophy
The Land of Lincoln Trophy is presented to the winner of the annual college football game between Illinois rivals Northwestern University, located in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, and the University of Illinois, located on the border between the central Illinois cities of Champaign and Urbana...
, in 2009
2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season
The 2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season, or the college football season, began on September 2, 2009, progressed through the regular season and bowl season, and concluded with the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game in Pasadena, California on January 7, 2010, featuring the...
.